Alliance for Wisconsin Youth

Advisory Council and Annual “All Members” Meeting

Minutes

Thursday, June 1, 2006 – 9:30am-3:00pm

Howard Johnson’s Plaza Hotel, Madison, Wisconsin

Council Members Present: Tim Belleau (Columbia Co), Pat Bero (Waushara Co),Kathy Ames-Sherry (Vernon Co), Shannon Wilber (Menominee Tribe),Bette Wahl (Eau Claire Co), Francie McGuire Winkler (Racine Co),Steve Fernan (Dept of Public Instruction), Ronda Kopelke (Northwoods Coalition), Tana Feiner (Wisconsin WINS), Tracy Herlitske (WATODEN), Kathryn Wolf (Wisconsin Clearinghouse), Greg Hutchins (Wisconsin 4H Youth Development),

Additional AWY Members Present: Karen Torgerson (Wisconsin Dells),Kim Cassidy (Waushara Co),Melinda Pollen (Northwoods Coalition), Gail Bruss (Ozaukee Co), Claudia Roska and Carol Hanneman-Garuz (Waukesha Co), Scott Huntington and Kim Kunz (Washington Co),Shelia Simonsen (Racine Co), Dorry Wilner and Jody Bezio (Oshkosh), Ron Biendseil (Dane Co), Lucy Gibson and Mary O’Donnell (Madison), Shannon Griswald, Meme Kintner (Madison), Gretchen Dypold and Cheryl Salava (Rock Co),Kristen Gravatt and Joel Dhein (Milw-Compass), Rick Peterson (Crawford Co),Paul Vidas and Chris Wardlow (Outagamie Co), Ken Ramminger (Marquette Co),Dan Garcia and Corey Foster (Milw-Teaching Abstinence),Tammy Duve (Green Lake Co), Jeff Bentz (CESA 8), Tracey Carey (Milw-Boys/Girls Club).

AWY or DHFSStaff Present: Sue Allen, Stephanie Legro, Greg Levenick, Debbie McGough, Jamie McCarville, Lou Oppor, Peg Algar. Diane Jenkins and June Paul-afternoon only to present.

Updates

  • Current Alliance for Wisconsin Youth membership exists in 53 counties, with a total of 91 member coalitions. Staff is currently working on obtaining membership in the other 19 counties within Wisconsin.
  • Communicating and connecting with members on a consistent basis has improved since last year: 1) The first Wisconsin Coalitions Connect event will be held July 19-20 at the new Holiday Inn in Stevens Point. 2) Alliance members are receiving weekly CADCA e-newsletters forwarded by AWY staff. To gain access to information requiring login, local members who are not dues-paying CADCA members can request CADCA information through AWY staff. 3) In the future there will be teleconferences for local Alliance members on topics of interest. 4) The idea of regional meetings was discussed but is on hold until the teleconference service is up and running.
  • For 2006-07, AWY will be staffed by 1.5 persons out of the Westfield office of Wisconsin Positive Youth Development. In addition a Membership Services Team consisting of prevention and youth development professionals in Wisconsin will assist with membership development, training and technical assistance.
  • Five (5) $5000 Coalition Improvement Grants were selected for awardduring the 2006-07 state year. Mini-grants will also become available for such events as Family and Community Town Suppers, Link-n-Learns and Youth Summits. The Safe and DrugFreeSchool grant awarded to the Girl Neighborhood Power Alliance, Madison, has one year of funding remaining.
  • Scholarships to the Wisconsin Prevention Conference and the Wisconsin Coalitions Connect event are to all eligible Alliance members. Applications are due via email by June 12, 2006 by 3:00pm.
  • Statewide Youth Leadership Council (SYLC) is focusing on access to alcohol. They have developed three public service announcements. They are taking a trip to Madison to visit their legislatures. SYLC meets 4 to 5 times a year and is youth led. It was suggested that SYLC should contact women’s groups since these groups generally have scholarship programs available.
  • The Northwoods Coalition is a program of the Marshfield Clinic. The Alliance sponsors Project Forward and Youth Press of Wisconsin, both managed by Northwoods Coalition. Youth Press is a youth-led, statewide newspaper distributed 3 times per year. New members are welcomed. Project Forward is a youth development program with youth engagement and Americorps emphasis. Currently, there is a posting for a full-time position for the Northwoods Coalition manager.
  • America’s Promise is not an AWY partner but the AWY does support its framework, as the AWY supports all prevention and youth development frameworks. Wisconsin Community Papers sponsored the AWY’s membership with Partners for Drug-Free America this past year. AWY pays annual fee to be a CADCA member, in which all local members benefit.
  • The Safe and Drug-FreeSchoolsfunding update noted that the budget recommended for this year had a 20% reduction. Originally, it had been recommended to zero out all funds because states are unable to evaluate outcomes. CADCA is leading an “Action Alert” across the nation to show support for the program. Individuals can use CAPWIZ (CADCA’s online advocacy effort) to voice their opinion to support funding. All CESA’s have been notified of this movement and they have been contacting the schools.
  • The State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup (SEOW), staffed by Peg Algar and Mike Quirk, will collect data to profile consumption and patterns of substance abuse in Wisconsin and to demonstrate the overall substance abuse problem in Wisconsin. It will identify patterns and indicators to use for prevention. Individuals will be able to ask questions about SEOW at the state prevention conference, as there will be a one-hour timeframe blocked for this specific purpose. Sue Allen, AWY Associate Director, will serve on the SEOW and report regularly to AWY members via email.
  • There are still grants available for UnderageDrinkingTown Hall meetings through the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA). Individual community stories are being compiled and can be found on the Wisconsin Clearinghouse Website. The Wisconsin Clearinghouse will also be offering 12 mini-grants this fall to host town hall meetings. Shannon Wilber, Menominee Tribe, described that their Underage Drinking Townhall meeting covered five communities and attracted 130 people! A Communication Action Committee was formed and patrol & law enforcement issues from police were addressed.
  • Methamphetamine prevention: the Wisconsin Bureau of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (BMHSAS) now has a Meth Prevention Team, including new Prevention Fellow Raina Zwadzich They will be inviting more members in the future. They applied for a Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPFSIG) grant in May. It is a $2.3 million grant for 5 years. If funded, SEOW will be assimilated into this.The number of labs is down but the demand has increased. Meth is continuing to be distributed here from super labs in Mexico.
  • National Outcome Measures (NOMs) are a current and future priority in substance abuse prevention. SAMHSA requires reporting NOMs for all funds they administer to states and communities. AWY andBMHSAS are focusing efforts to ‘get the word out’ about NOMS to counties, AWY members, and all providers of substance abuse treatment and prevention services in Wisconsin.
  • The May 1st ‘ABCs of Advocacy’ training attracted 55 participants and has strong positive reviews with some concerns. It is recommended to focus on state advocacy/lobbying procedures in a future event. There will be a roundtable concerning the same topic at the Coalitions Connect event.

The AWY Identity: Uniting Prevention and Youth Development

Sue Allen presented an overview of the similarities and differences between substance abuse prevention and positive youth development. Highly complementary, ‘youth development’ overlaps substantially with substance abuse prevention when building youth as coalition leaders and members, and in most of the core components of model prevention programs. Some AWY members focus on substance abuse prevention, others on youth development.

AWY has a primary responsibility to substance abuse prevention in Wisconsin through supporting the work of local coalitions. AWY funding is from the state’s Drug Abuse Program Improvement Surcharge (DAPIS). AWY emphasizes the National Outcome Measures (NOMs) to assist counties and coalitions contribute to statewide and federal consistency in reporting substance abuse outcomes. Because this is very much the language and framework of substance abuse prevention, it is important to remember that deeply imbedded in substance abuse prevention work is youth development. Often our language does not reflect this, and that can be confusing or off-putting for AWY members who focus primarily on youth development.

Greg Hutchins presented results of the FrameWorks Institute study on messages that ‘work’ when influencing the public’s perception of and action toward young people. He distributed a copy of the report titled ‘Making the Case for Youth Programs: the Minnesota Research” and reviewed it with participants. The report has significant implications for both substance abuse prevention and youth development work and Greg’s presentation was extremely well-received. Ten (10) key ‘communications recommendations” are made by FrameWorks Institute in this study – the report is available to anyone by contacting the AWY office at 608-296-9960 or .

Additional Topics for Participant Advice and Recommendations

  • AWY Website: Participants reviewed and responded to a handout listing ideas for the new website. Great comments and suggestions were provided and the AWY staff will work to incorporate as many as possible in future website development.
  • AWY Teleconferences: Participants ranked the different possible topics for future teleconferences. A general consensus was that teleconferences were a good method to provide service to Alliance members. AWY staff will tally rankings and work on developing future teleconference opportunities.Teleconferences will start out on a quarterly basis and possibly move to monthly depending on the popularity of them.Materials discussed at teleconferences will be sent to teleconference participants.

State and National Partner Reports

  • Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) now has a option for state association members when there is more than one state association member in any particular state. Essentially, the first membership is $2500/year and the second is $500/year. The AWY and Wisconsin Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug Education Network (WATODEN) each have state association memberships and are working together to determine the best course of action for 2006-07. Individual coalitions can also pay to be members.
  • CADCA membership includes access to the coalition institute, trainings, publications, discounts, and strategizers, as well as updates on emerging issues.
  • CADCA provides a service titled CAPWIZ that presents an issue and their position, plus a letter that you can have CADCA send to your U.S.senator/gov’t official.
  • Someone suggested we encourage CADCA to hold their mid-year institute here for Wisconsin to host.
  • Wisconsin After School Network (WAN): Steve Fernan reported that dozens of organizations from across the state have joined forces in support of afterschool programs through the Wisconsin Afterschool Network (WAN). Funded by the C.S. Mott Foundation, as well as generous contributions by partner organizations, the WAN is a public/private partnership whose vision is that all Wisconsin school age youth will have the opportunity to attend a high-quality afterschool program. Three areas of focus are to: 1) provide expanded partners; 2) improve program quality and standards and; 3)advocate for increased funding for local programs. The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has a website link for WAN.
  • Greg Hutchins reported that Wisconsin 4-H Youth Development has several projects in counties relating to youth forums, including Vilas, Lincoln, Jackson, Clark and Florence counties. “Give Youth a Voice”engages diverse youth in planning, implementing and evaluation service-learning activities through their school. Operation Military is another 4H where youth lead efforts to raise awareness of the needs of young people in military families. Greg also emphasized the work 4H is doing (also with AWY) to build the ‘Youth as Partners in Civic Leadership effort. For example, Sawyer County Board has youth voting and those votes are considered and published in the newspaper, but not counted legally in the vote. RockCounty has ‘Unleashed Potential’ that promotes youth and adults working together.

Governor Doyle’s KidsFirst Initiative

Governor Doyle's KidsFirst Initiative is a comprehensive plan to ensure that Wisconsin's kids are healthy, safe, prepared for success, and supported by strong families. Diane Jenkins, Senior Policy Analyst for the Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS), briefly reviewed the major components of the KidsFirst Initiative. They are Child Safety, Mental Health, Foster Care, Physical Health, and Chronic Health Problems. The KidsFirst Initiative began January 2004 and has accomplished a number of specific goals since then, but this is only a beginning, not an end.

In addition to KidsFirst, Diane stated that DHFS is bringing together state level partners in youth development including Brighter Futures Initiative, Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Child Abuse and Neglect prevention, Suicide Prevention grant (partnership with Mental Health Association), and collaboration with DPI to maximize resources. Community-building and cultural norm change are the priorities. Additional information is available on the DHFS website.

Diane reported on improvements to Badger Care Plus, which provides access to high quality, affordable healthcare for persons at or below 300% of the federal poverty level. These improvement simplify eligibility. For more information, visit

Ken Ramminger asked about the status of the ‘cross-system collaboration’ for service integration in the child welfare system. He mentioned the eight sites selected as example or demonstration sites. Diane reported that in 2006 and beyond DHFS will provide training and technical assistance to increase the statewide capacity to help counties improve service integration.

Ronda Kopelke asked if there was a specific way for local communities to bring issues to the attention of state leaders – is there a way to work as partners or do we give opinions into a policy-making process? Diane suggested that each person provides input to the state leaders he/she works most closely with, asking for additional leads or contacts if necessary.

Ron Biendseil asked if there was a plan to transfer learning from Brighter Futures Initiatives to other counties and/or to expand BFI funding to additional counties? Diane suggested we speak directly to the Governor’s office or the legislature about this.

Meeting was adjourned at 2:50pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Tsgt. Debra McGough, Stephanie Legro, Sue Allen

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